Oh Danny Boy (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #5)

He turned back to me. “Ah, yes. A bad business. I never thought Daniel would take money from the gangs. He was as straight as his father used to be.”


“It was a setup, Sergeant O’Hallaran. The envelope he received was supposed to contain a list of names. Somebody put money in it. Somebody made darned sure that the commissioner was there to witness the transaction.”

“You don’t say? You’d better come on through.”

He ushered me into the unused splendor of the front parlor. I thought that Mrs. O’Hallaran would probably have wanted me in the back parlor or even the kitchen, but I perched on the edge of one of the velvet upholstered chairs.

“So it’s up to me to find out who is out for Daniel’s blood. I wondered if you had any thoughts on the subject yourself. Daniel says you’re one of the few men he trusts completely. Most of his fellow officers seem to have turned against him.”

“Well, you can understand why, can’t you?” O’Hallaran said, pulling up a chair beside me. “After old Whitey’s death in that brawl—men at HQ are saying that it was Daniel who tipped off the gang to the police raid. Our men don’t take kindly to being betrayed by one of their own.”

“But Daniel swears he had nothing to do with that. He’s not in the pay of the Eastmans either. He was trying to help his pal, Jack Brady, by setting up a prizefight for him. And yes, I know it’s illegal these days, but that’s a far cry from being in Monk Eastman’s pocket.”

O’Hallaran nodded, digesting this. “Then who’s been spreading the rumors?”

“How did you hear?”

“I can’t say. You know what rumors are like—like a jar full of moths. Once they escape, they’re all over the place.”

“Is there anyone you’ve noticed who seems to take a particular delight in these rumors?”

He shook his head. “Most of the men are real sorry this had to happen to Daniel. He was generally respected, you know. A good captain. Always put his men’s welfare first.”

“Could someone be jealous of him?”

“It seems a long way to go over a little matter of jealousy. I can’t think of anybody he’s particularly slighted or upset—other than most of the criminals in the city.” He glanced up at me and grinned. “My bet would be on Monk Eastman himself to have planted the money and started the rumors, you know. There’s always been little love lost between him and Daniel. In fact, I was surprised when I heard they were in this together.”

“It wasn’t Monk,” I said. “I asked him.”

The old sergeant’s eyes shot open. “You went looking for Monk Eastman? That was a very foolish thing to do, young lady.”

“I didn’t have much choice. I sent Jack Brady to ask the questions, and he disappeared. Monk seems to know where he is, but I don’t know if he’s alive and well or not. So now I’m all that Daniel’s got. If I don’t find out the truth, nobody will.”

“You’ve got spunk, I’ll say that for you,” he said. “So it wasn’t Monk.”

“I’m wondering if it was the police commissioner himself,” I ventured. “He seemed so pleased that he’d caught Daniel.”

“You went to see him, too?”

I nodded. “Again, I had no choice. He claimed he just happened to be in the area, and it was completely fortuitous that he witnessed the bribe being passed.”

“But why would the commissioner want Daniel out of the way?” O’Hallaran asked. “You don’t get rid of well-respected officers if you want your department to run smoothly. And it would be the commissioner’s own head that would roll if the department doesn’t run smoothly.”

“Maybe it’s a personal grudge. A vendetta we know nothing about.”

“Possible, I suppose.” He stroked his chin as if half expecting to find a beard there. “Seems to me there are three possibilities—a grudge in his professional life, a grudge in his personal life, or”—he paused and looked up at me—“a case he was working on that somebody didn’t want to be solved.”

“That’s an interesting thought,” I said, digesting this new suggestion. “I never asked him what he was working on. But then that wouldn’t make sense. If Daniel was taken off a case, another officer would be put in his place and the investigation would go on.”

“Daniel was good, Miss Murphy. Better than the average cop. Maybe somebody wants the investigation to drag out until we lose interest.”

“Could you find out for me which of your men were accompanying the commissioner when he stumbled upon Daniel accepting the bribe?”

The sergeant nodded. “Yes, I can do that. And if you let me know what Daniel was working on, I can tell you who has been put in to replace him. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Someone else entirely could be pulling the strings in the background.”

“Somebody would really have to be desperate to go to those lengths,” I said.